One of Malick Sidibé’s era-defining photographs. Courtesy Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerp Barbican - September 2012 monthly round-up. Photograph: Malick Sidibé/Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerp

Malick Sidibé: the photographer who changed the idea of black beauty

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The photographer, who has died aged 80, was known for his hugely influential shots of post-independence Mali

With his electric style, Malick Sidibé, who has died aged 80, was the Malian photographer who changed the idea of black beauty in fashion.

His most celebrated shots were the street photography that documented the jubilant fizz of post-independence in Bamako. With his 35mm camera, he captured the new urban elite: the Malians who had absorbed the stylistic cues of Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and James Brown.

Sidibé with his Rolleiflex in 2006. Photograph: Andre Durand/AFP/Getty Images

Sidibé captured the hip young things as they went from a colonial past to independence, resplendent in their leopard-print flares, finely cut berets and matching white outfits mid-dance.

When Sidibé received his Golden Lion lifetime achievement award at Venice’s Biennale in 2007, the art critic Robert Storr said: “No African artist has done more to … increase our awareness of the textures and transformations of African culture in the second half of the 20th century.”

One nation under a groove: Malick Sidibé’s photographs– in pictures

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